This time we're keeping it short and sweet while we finish up details on the vanilla sides and almost approach the end of designing first batch of Foehn features.

I've recorded several videos recently, one promo which features all of Mental Omega Superweapons and three AI-only skirmish matches which involved all of the vanilla sides' subfactions in Mental Omega. Thanks to recent developments it is possible for me to become an observer of an AI-only game and with proper Mental AI Boosts an absolute mayhem has taken place. AI-only skirmishes are completely different than human ones, they're highly explosive and full of units and constant action, at least as soon as the War Factories are placed.

There are some new features, changes and details we haven't shown before in these videos. What needs to be addressed first, is that the economy booster buildings in Mental Omega (Ore Purifier, Industrial Plant and Cloning Vats) all function as a single Oil Derrick, which is a thing that was introduced back in the 2013 release. The only difference now is that thanks to Ares DLL the money those buildings provide is visually presented in the form of small animation. Foehn's economy booster building will have its unique function but also act as a single Oil Derrick as well.Side-specific updates include the following:

THE ALLIED NATIONS

The Allied subfactions receive a unique Tier 3 infantry each. USA gets the Riot Trooper, Euro Alliance gets its Sniper back in skirmish and Pacific Front receives a redesigned Suppressor with new looks by Holy_Master who uses experimental chrono technology to reverse the damage of enemy units.

The Allied Cryocopter in action with its abilities to freeze and immobilize moving objects while also heavily decreasing the durability of any object under its influence. This freezing effect is not instant, it requires time to fully take effect and the size of its visual changes depending on the size of the target.

The Allied Hummingbird requires an Experimental Warpshop to be built and unlike Cryocopter, its effects are quick and instant. It is the fastest jet in the game and its time warp weapon, which halves both speed and firepower will affect all targets in a selected area, instead of a single object. It does not work against buildings though.

The Euro Alliance Coordnode, mentioned before, replaces the old Comet Fence and will increase firepower of defenses nearby by 10%.

The Pacific Front gets a new support power called Hunter-Seeker which essentially works like the GDI one in Tiberian Sun. If you construct 5 Robot Ops Control Centers, you can fire 5 Hunter Seekers at once for the same price. It is the maximum amount of H-S drones that you can release.

The Black Widow support power, available from the Tech Center, will release an unmanned stealth aircraft which will send jamming signals that decrease the effectiveness of enemy defenses and disrupts the signal of anti-aircraft defenses, making your aircraft nearby resist more damage, as shown by the small green circles around them. With a very strong armor, the Black Widow will also be able to tank in plenty of anti-aircraft fire before it is redirected at your other aircraft.

The Robot Tank will now use lasers against its targets, making it an early anti-infantry weapon on par with Terror Drones and Stingers.

New design for the Pacific Front's basic tank Kappa. Its strength & speed stats have been "swapped", it is now lighter but just as fast as the Robot Tanks and Tsurugis.

The redesigned USA Basswave becomes a Red Alert 3-styled Athena Cannon which connects to the Mercury Satellite to coordinate powerful orbital laser strikes with a short pre-delay. When a Mercury Strike support power is used nearby your Athena Cannons, it becomes easier to recalibrate the orbital weapon, which increases the unit's firepower for a short period of time.

As a sidenote, the Battle Fortress, being a unit of Pacific Front will lose its scottish accent.

THE SOVIET UNION

All Soviet subfactions receive a Tier 3 jet which can release smoke screen over its enemies, called the Dustdevil. The smoke screen will decrease the enemy accuracy, which will result in less damage being dealt to your units. The Latin Confederation still keeps its unique Smoke Bombs support power, the duration of which is much longer.

The Latin Confederation's new Fury Drone can be deployed to dig into the ground and become unseen to the enemies. When an enemy approaches, it will launch itself at it and explode violently, dealing plenty of damage to the target and anything nearby. It does not replace the Terror Drone.

The Latin Confederation also receives the Arsonist, which is a Tier 3 infiltrator who can set enemy buildings on fire and disguise as the enemy soldiers.

The Fury Drone and the Arsonist replace Latin Confederation's unique Drakuv and Hijacker. The Hijacker is no longer a Soviet unit, while the Drakuv becomes available to all Soviet subfactions. It is accessible through a support power that can only be accessed when both Field Bureau and a lab has been built.

Updated Drakuv Prison Vehicle can abduct enemy troops which have been wounded in battle and escort them to the Field Bureau. If the player sends them to the Field Bureau, he will get the ability to train the imprisoned soldier type. However, if a Spy infiltrates the Field Bureau, access to that technology will be lost.

The Saboteur's radiation field created upon his explosion has been removed to reduce its effectiveness in killing Dogs & Spooks.

China receives a new support power called the Wallbuster, which is an earthquake-generating missile fired from their unique laboratory, the Atomheart. The Wallbuster is extremely effective against enemy defenses and will destroy any walls it touches.

All Soviet subfactions receive the Iron Guard which is a small Iron Curtain that turns all vehicles nearby invulnerable with short delays where these units are suspectible to damage. Only two of these can be built at once, after you construct the Iron Curtain itself.

​THE EPSILON ARMY

The Epsilon Dog is replaced with the Spook, a terrifying creature which.. does everything a man's best friend can do.

The Epsilon Aerodome gives access to two jets, one of them being the Dybbuk-Attacker, which can continuously fire its A.R.O. projectiles at ground targets, however no longer without an ammo limit. It is a very fast jet which is effective against enemy armor. The other one, is a high tech Dybbuk-Evolver available after a Cloning Vats is built. It drops a series of bombs filled with gas, the particles of which trigger a mutation reaction on the soldiers killed in battle. It is also relatively effective against all other targets.

With the chaos gas tech for Epsilon no more, the Weaver has been repurposed into the Bloatick, which is a walking poisonous bomb, quite effective against all sorts of targets, especially in large groups. The Scorpion Cell's Molebomb support power has been replaced with the Bloatick Trap which deploys several of those anywhere on the battlefield.

A new support power for the PsiCorps, the Magnetic Beam is a weapon fired from.. the sky, I guess, which will trap and slow down all metallic units. It is active for a short period of time and can be moved around the battlefield just like any other unit, in a similar fashion to C&C Generals Particle Cannon.

Virus is no longer a stolen tech unit and is available to all Epsilon subfactions after they construct the Cloning Vats.

The Stalker loses its immobilizer weapon. It is replaced with a special projectile that upon firing at enemy infantry, will heal your troops around that specific soldier, which is especially effective when Brutes, Bloaticks or any other short range infantry is involved in the battle. The infantry immobilizer tech became a Foehn weapon.

The Invaders can now shut down the power plants again, however they will only be able to shut down a single power instead of the entire base power grid. Nuclear Reactor users beware!

Not exactly shown in these videos I think, Headquarters receive a new Tier 3 stealth mine, the Genomine which releases the mutating gas upon exploding.

Headquarters also receive a mobile stealth generator in the form of the Hazequad. Just like the Chimera Core, it can only turn units & infantry invisible.

The Rage Inductor support superweapon has been modified and will no longer kill your infantry. Instead, it will heal them rapidly and will work on a larger area.

Please keep in mind that, as usual, everything is a subject to change.

And here's the aforementioned Superweapons video, which includes Foehn's Blasticade and the Great Tempest. Nanofiber Sync and Harbinger are not superweapons, but they're shown here as well.

If you'd like to help develop Mental Omega further, write an e-mail to mental.omega.apyr@gmail.comWe always welcome additional Voxel Artists, 3D & SHP Artists, Mission Scripters and Voice Actors.Single contributions are also welcome and will speed up the development of the mod.

Hmmm...unless virus' damage changed, in my time playing skirmishes, I always one-shot brutes (2 seconds for the green bar thing) with veteran virus, and if they grouped together, all of them die at the same time. (unless you're talking about Hunter-Seeker's damage...?)

I basically need nothing else other than a couple of viruses to clean the enemy base from infantries ._. no desolator IFVs, no prism tanks...

My Tesla Troopers will be eternally grateful that they get to live 5 additional seconds longer trying to storm an Epsilon Gatling Tower and my Desolators having the chance to live after the battle so they can get cancer later!

Psychic Tower is not scrapped. Thanks for bringing this up, I completely forgot that its prerequisite is also a building upgrade, which is why AI doesn't build it.

Snipers got.. modified, I guess would be the better word. They're available at Tier 3 (Tech Center+Shield Command), they are more costly, but they're still very effective. They also got the sandbag which increases their range while they're immobile.

Black Widow doesn't make your aircraft untargetable but it increases their strength temporarily, it also applies to Stallions. That's what we can do with this engine and Ares DLL. Black Widow also decreases the firepower of enemy defenses and shuts down the radar.

Cryocopter will synergize with any fast and strong group of air units, not to mention what they will do as a support for ground army. USA air raids with rocketeers and warhawks will surely be way more dangerous.

i am really liking this Black Widow support power. i can see so many possibilities open up for the Allied airforce. but does it only affect defense structures or can vehicles like the Chinese Sentinel be debuffed too? or are units supposed to counter the Widow?

Also so Robot Ops center is only designed for deploying HS Drones? or is there another secret surprise in store for them?